Brooklyn Gets $900K to Combat Domestic Violence

Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes announced Thursday that the borough had received $900,000 in federal grant money to help domestic violence victims.

The funds, doled out by the U.S. Department of Justice, will be divided between the DA's office and nonprofit groups who provide services for domestic violence victims.

These groups include the New York Asian Women’s Center, Jewish Community House of Bensonhurst, Dwa Fanm, the Center for Family of Life and the Trinity Healing Center of Sunset Park.

“This grant will help my office continue to break down the linguistic and cultural barriers that isolate domestic violence victims and protect their batterers,” Hynes said.

The Grants to Encourage Arrest Policies and Enforcement of Protection Orders Program (Arrest Program) aims to enhance victim safety and offender accountability in cases of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking by encouraging jurisdictions to implement pro-arrest policies. 

The Borough of Brooklyn intends to use the DOJ award to implement a project that will help to support five bi-lingual victim assistants who provide 24-hour crisis response, as well as a Project Coordinator that will provide counseling, legal advocacy and referral to community-based services. The money will also help fund a prosecutor to handle dual arrest cases and support an investigator to investigate stalking cases.

“As we prepare to mark Domestic Violence Month in October, this $900,000 grant from the Department of Justice will go a long way in helping to prevent domestic violence in Brooklyn,” said Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz. “In particular, this grant will target the needs of our borough’s Caribbean, Latino, Asian and Russian-speaking residents—communities that are often without a voice in the struggle against domestic violence.”